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Can you name the countries with the most active military personnel?
created by
davidr
Enter a country in the box below
Correctly named countries will show up below
Answers do not have to be guessed in order
Source:
Wikipedia
(which culls many many sources)
Updated 8/24/11
Also try:
WWI Peace Treaties
You have 5 minutes to guess after you click the button below.
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Ready? Click to Start
Enter country:
0
/25 countries correct
05:00
Show Missed Answers
Rank
Country
Personnel
1.
2,285,000
2.
1,468,364
3.
1,325,000
4.
1,106,000
5.
1,027,000
6.
687,000
7.
617,000
8.
620,000
9.
523,000
10.
468,500
11.
455,000
12.
406,000
13.
352,771
Rank
Country
Personnel
14.
327,710
15.
325,000
16.
305,860
17.
302,000
18.
293,202
19.
285,220
20.
267,506
21.
250,613
22.
233,500
23.
230,300
24.
201,750
25.
197,780
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There are
169 comments
for this game.
(Warning: comments may contain spoilers)
World's Largest Militaries Quiz
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:
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Created by
:
davidr
-
Published
: January 30th, 2009
Category
:
Geography
Plays
: 250,113
Tags:
Military Quizzes
,
Country Quizzes
,
World Quizzes
,
active
,
largest
,
personnel
,
rank
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deej
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 18:23 GMT
9 points
cool quiz!
kinskey
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 18:26 GMT
83 points
eritrea?!
Sabo
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 18:33 GMT
16 points
Great quiz. Some surprising answers ... I figured Venezuela would have a larger military than Colombia given the money they make from their oil reserves.
Massagraf
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 18:35 GMT
23 points
I like this quiz but the number of personnel makes me sad...
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mkgrenwel
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 18:35 GMT
-7 points
+1 Kyle. I got 24/25.
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slew:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 18:45 GMT
-77 points
I can't even imagine why Eritrea would need such a large military. All the fighting that goes on in the poor African countries is between tribes and ethnic groups. At least Eritreans are good distance runners, so they'd be fast on the battle field.
newniki
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 18:48 GMT
7 points
Some genuinely surprising answers. Great quiz davidr!
jesus
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 18:48 GMT
35 points
I'm surprised UK is not here considering we are in the middle of two wars. And before you say davidr I know that the UK is 27 th with a military personnel of 195900.
James:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 18:49 GMT
10 points
A very interesting quiz. I was surprised by Eritrea too, but it looks like they have significant ongoing disputes with all of their neighbours, particularly Ethiopia, who they had a war over territory with in 2000.
CarpeDiem
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 18:50 GMT
8 points
Eritrea only gained its full independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after 30+ years of war, so they're probably not really ready to stand down yet. @Kyle & mkgrenwel, I was right there with you-- 24 of 25. Eritrea only made sense once I saw it on the list. :-) GREAT QUIZ!!
montecarlo
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 18:51 GMT
3 points
why is 5 ranked behind 4 if it has a larger number?
Kicking222
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 18:53 GMT
4 points
I got 23- forgot Burma/Myanmar- but even though Eritrea does make sense, I never would've thought of it. Though if they're on the list, I wonder why Ethiopia is only 29th.
Kicking222
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 18:55 GMT
25 points
And since we got this quiz, I think we should see the "Countries with no military" quiz (perhaps based on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_without_armed_forces).
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Brandon
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 19:00 GMT
-8 points
seconded montecarlo
jzev
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 19:11 GMT
22 points
how about a similar quiz based on what percentage of the population is in the military
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chambers
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 19:16 GMT
-12 points
looks like there's some mistake in the ordering
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chambers
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 19:20 GMT
-9 points
great quiz too. really pleased i got turkey. missed burma and thailand
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HollywoodLeo
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 19:22 GMT
-8 points
Can't believe I missed Pakistan
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rahv
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 19:25 GMT
-7 points
i would've expected a lot more african countries in there
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Kitnaz
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 19:29 GMT
-8 points
surprised Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, Brazil, Iran etc are on here is UK isn't...
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Booger
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 19:30 GMT
-8 points
Great quiz idea. I know it's popular in the UK to still refer to Myanmar as Burma, but the name of the country is now Myanmar.
David83
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 19:36 GMT
8 points
I bet a good few of those countries have Military Service for guys in their late teens. I'm pretty sure that's why Thailand's on there
Kevin
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 19:38 GMT
9 points
@David: That's why I was surprised that there was no Switzerland. They have compulsory service for a large percentage of their population. I guess the pop is just too small.
Uhlan
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 19:40 GMT
7 points
@Whole Lotta Sporcle; Eritrea fought a long war with Ethiopia before independence. Iran tries to safeguard the revolution (hence the IRGC), al-Qaeda and Saddam wanted to topple the royal family of Saudi Arabia. Brazil, who knows? I too was surprised the UK doesn't feature.
davidr
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:22 GMT
14 points
@Booger: I'm following the BBC and the US and British governments. One line of reasoning which is that the military junta in Burma has no mandate from the people and, thus, no right to change the name of the country. The Burmese people refer to their country as Burma in everyday speech and Myanmar when speaking formally. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7389525.stm
Ieuano
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:23 GMT
18 points
to booger, if you recognise the name Myanmar you legitimse the dictatorship there.
debbiedoesnothin
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:25 GMT
7 points
Good quiz. I learned something from this one. I was surprised France and Italy have bigger militaries than the UK. Eritrea boggles my mind. When I was going through a list of African countries, I passed it up because it's so small.
titaniferous
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:31 GMT
7 points
Another nice "gettable" one. @Ben:Brazil is on the list mostly because it's an enormous country, fifth most populous globally. Considering that twelve smaller countries are ahead of it on this list, its military is relatively small as a function of population. Indonesia's situation is similar.
davidr
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:33 GMT
1 point
@Kevin: I'm not sure how the size of Switzerland's army is defined and Wikipedia's source is in German, which I don't read very well at all. I expect it's calculated based on the fact that the active military service of a Swiss conscript is only one or two years, even though he will then be a member of the militia (effectively, a reservist) until he is in his thirties or later.
davidr
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:34 GMT
4 points
@kicking222: I submitted a quiz of countries with no military at the same time as this one! :-)
Annie
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:35 GMT
3 points
@davidr: is there any chance of a military per capita quiz? (or however this sort of thing would correctly be described) @kicking222: a countries with no military quiz would actually be a great idea; the list is not overwhelmingly long and seems to be a reasonable but not over the top challenge.
Annie
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:36 GMT
4 points
@davidr: You beat me by a minute when responding to kicking222's comment. But thanks a lot for submitting that one! I look forward to playing it!
davidr
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:40 GMT
1 point
@Most people: As has been remarked, Eritrea spent 31 years at war trying to become independent from Ethiopia and, since independence in 1993, has been engaged in border disputes with Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen.
Vernon Gonsalves:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:43 GMT
3 points
22/25. Myanmar, Taiwan and of course, like everybody else, I completely disregarded Eritrea when mentally going through all large countries and countries with conflicts (though I did attempt Ethiopia). I tried about 30 that didn't register, including such stables as Libya, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Philippines, Argentina, Chile, Cuba etc.
i feel like i should know this:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:49 GMT
28 points
Israel has less than 200,000 active military personnel? I find that hard to believe...
Booger
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:51 GMT
3 points
@davidr and Ieuan: I understand what you are saying about the horrendous government in the country, but the fact of the matter is that the junta is the government there. The UN (admittedly, way down on my list of entities) calls the country Myanmar. I simply disagree with the idea of trying to take a political position by ignoring the name of a country chosen by its goverment.
Booger
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:54 GMT
6 points
@i feel like I should know this: Israel has many reserve troops. If you combine active and reserve troops, Israel ranks 21st.
GeordieGuitarist
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:56 GMT
7 points
Used to be in the British army. There's not enough equipment or supplies for half of us. And considering we're in the middle of two unnecessary wars, i can understand why we don't have many people jumping at the chance to join up.
davidr
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 21:03 GMT
5 points
@Booger: The UN's position, like yours, is that the government of a member country can call itself whatever it wants. I'm not taking a political position *by* ignoring the government's choice of name; I'm taking a political position *that involves* ignoring the government's choice of name. Just like I ignore that government's claims that democracy is a threat to the peace and stability of the country it has been repressing for most of the last fifty years.
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meinhorn11
:
Jan 30th, 2009 at 21:06 GMT
-10 points
can you make US an acceptable answer?? that killed me it is acceptable in just about every quiz
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